Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 22: As large posters on the roadsides in Patna beckon the opposition leaders for the Friday’s first meeting towards an united opposition against the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, obsessed with his own problem, put a spanner to the unity move on Thursday.
Kejriwal has threatened to skip Friday’s pivotal opposition meeting if the Congress does not back its campaign against a contentious central government ordinance that aims to reshape Delhi’s administrative services, the AAP sources said on Thursday.
The move risks derailing efforts by India’s splintered opposition to come together and finalise the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “The Congress must support us on the issue of the Delhi ordinance. We will boycott the opposition meeting if it doesn’t and stay away from future opposition meetings,” AAP sources said.
Kejriwal had earlier written a letter to all opposition leaders to take up the Centre’s ordinance against the Delhi services as the first item for discussion at the Friday’s meet claiming that it was the most burning issue before the country and the first big step towards the centre derailing all non-BJP states to directly rule from Delhi through its appointed governors and lieutenant governors.
The ordinance in question, introduced by the BJP-led government at the centre last month, seeks to take control of Delhi’s bureaucrats. The AAP has criticised the move, arguing it undermines a recent Supreme Court verdict granting control of services in Delhi, excluding police, public order, and land, to the elected government.
Kejriwal on Tuesday had expressed the hope that the Congress would clear its stand on the ordinance at the opposition meeting on Friday. He has also requested other parties to make their stand on this matter clear during the meeting.
Despite Kejriwal’s request, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is yet to meet him to discuss the ordinance and an impatient AAP supremo chose to issue a threat on Friday to derail the opposition unity move if his point was not given the top most priority by all non-BJP parties.
He has been reaching out to leaders of non-BJP parties in an attempt to rally their support against the ordinance and block it from becoming law via parliament. The Congress has been the biggest holdout in the campaign that has received support from several regional parties opposed to the BJP.
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, one of the AAP’s staunchest opponents within his party, virtually rejected his ultimatum. He took a dig over the latest ultimatum saying, “Kejriwal ji no one will miss you. You were looking for excuses to skip… This meeting is not for people who make deals.”
While leaders of more than 20 non-BJP parties have confirmed their participation at Friday’s meet, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary will miss the meet. He has written to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has convened the opposition meet, informing him that he won’t be able to attend the on Friday meet due to a “pre-decided family programme.” Though RLD is a Samajwadi Party ally, the distance between the two parties has become evident in the last few months amid differences over seat sharing in the recent UP Urban Local Body elections. However, RLD leaders on Thursday said the differences between the two allies have been resolved.
A senior RLD leader said though Chaudhary won’t be able to attend Friday’s meeting, he supports the initiative. “Jayant ji had a pre-decided programme with his family to fly to a foreign country on June 16. Some of his relatives live there, and the programme was decided in advance,” said the RLD leader. “But he supports Nitish Kumar and his efforts to join the Opposition together. If he was in the country, he would have definitely gone for the meeting on Friday.”
Apart from Jayant Chaudhary, another big miss at the Opposition meeting will be the Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati, who as per the JD(U) was not invited.
The AAP’s threat apart, the JD(U) and Nitish Kumar are going ahead with the preparations for the big meet. A large poster of Nitish Kumar put up outside his party’s headquarters on Bir Chand Patel Path in the heart of Patna shows him gesturing with his right hand to make a point. The message blazoned on the poster reads, “Mann ki nahi, kaam ki (not musings, but work),” which apparently takes a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Mann ki Baat” programme.
Alongside this poster is a banner that says: “Aagaaz hua, badlau hoga (we have made the beginning, change would follow)”.
Top leaders of about 20 Opposition parties from across the country are set to attend this mega rally, which is expected to unveil their common action plan to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The CM House on 1 Anney Marg is gearing up to host the lunch and dinner for the Opposition leaders during June 22-23 with Bihari cuisine also set to be part of the menu on both days.
Located nearby, on Bir Chand Patel Path, is the State Guest House, which is also being readied amid tight security for the stay of the VIP guests including Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu CM and DMK president M K Stalin, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and ex-Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, and SP president and ex-UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, among others.
While some leaders, including Mamata and Stalin, are landing in Patna on Thursday, most of the Opposition leaders will arrive in Patna on Friday morning for the mega conclave, which is likely to conclude during the day. Several leaders, including Kharge, Rahul, Mamata, Pawar and Uddhav, are likely to arrive in Patna by chartered planes. Most of the Opposition leaders would return to their respective destinations on the same day.
JD (U) chief spokesperson K C Tyagi said, “The way several leaders from Opposition parties responded is a great indicator for grand success of the Opposition meet in Patna. Our goal is to come out with a common minimum programme. We have crossed the first step towards our objective of taking on the BJP in a big way in the 2024 polls”.
RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta said, “The Opposition unity would set the tone for the 2024 elections’ preparations. We are united on the common cause of offering an alternative that can restore democratic values.”
